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The Joe Murphy Column 25/9/20


THE FIFER
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The Joe Murphy Column

 

 

The 19th of September was the last race of the 2020 season up here in Scotland and many fanciers will wish to forget the season while others will wish it could go on for another couple of weeks. These last 2 weeks are normally the SNFC young bird nationals and this year there are some outstanding performances achieved by fanciers and their young birds. However the performance achieved by my dear friend Billy Bilsland of Ayton in the space of a week has been nothing short than sensational as Billy won 2 Scottish Nationals in the space of a WEEK; I have known Billy for quite a number of years and have had the pleasure of visiting his loft in Ayton to handle some of his wonderful national winning pigeons. Billy has now becomes a Scottish National ‘ICON’ as he now makes History by being the only fancier within Scotland to win 12 x 1st opens in national racing. I’m going to do an article on him for the Stud Book & Squills highlighting ALL these national wins. Billy’s first win was in 2012 with ‘Isla’ the following year he took the first 6 in the national and had another 5 birds in the top 20. In 2014 he again won 2 nationals being 1st & 2nd in on and 1st 2nd & 3rd in the other with another 4 birds in the top 20. In 2015 he took the first 6 plus 17th & 18th open. In 2016 he won 2 x 1st nationals from Ypres and Buckingham. In 2017 he won 1st open SNRPC from Billericay and in 2018 he won 1st national Buckingham with 6 birds in the top 20. The year 2019 Billy did not win a national but he was 2nd & 5th from the Buckingham old bird race; then from the Maidstone national he was 11th open from an entry of 2957 birds. In the Gold Cup race from Burdinne he was 10th open, from Ypres he was 63rd open and from Roye he won 24th open. From the young bird national he was 9th to 14th then 16th to 18th 20th 21st 23rd 24th 28th to 36th and then 40th to 44th. Thus showing that although he did not win a national his pigeons still performed to a very high standard;. This year 2020 is another mile stone in this wonderful fancier’s autobiography as he once again wins 2 national races into Scotland in the same season with young birds. From the Peterborough race with the SNRPC the convoy of 361 birds were liberated at 8am into a light west wind and Billy gained 1st 2nd 5th 11th 13th 16th 21st 27th 34th 39th & 40th with is winner now named as ‘Welltower Nicola’. 14 of these youngsters were then sent 6 days later to the SNFC young bird race from Huntingdon. The convoy of 1144 birds entered by 157 members were liberated at 8am into a west to south west wind and Billy took the first 7 places in the open result with his winner now known as ‘Welltower Philippa’ (see photo) named after Philippa York a Scottish journalist and former professional road racing cyclist. Philippa competed when known as Robert Millar (trained by Billy Bilsland) and became one of Britain's most successful cyclists winning the "King of the Mountains" competition in the 1984 Tour de France and finished 4th overall. He always acknowledged the help and assistance given by Billy which was a true reflection of this celebrity ‘Super Star’. The SNFC winner Philippa is a Gaby Vandenabeele and contains the bloodlines of ‘Pre Olympic’ a direct daughter of ‘Champion Shadow’ and Billy’s own SNFC winning bloodlines. Billy’s 2nd bird ‘Welltower 621’ (see photo) from the Huntingdon SNFC was his 5th bird from the previous week’s Peterborough race. He is bred from the Vandenabeele line crossed with Andrew Dean cock who is the sire of 2 x 1st open SNFC winner. Billy’s 3rd open ‘Welltower 1977’ (see photo) is a chequer white flight cock his sire was purchased at Gareth Rankin’s clearance sale and is the sire of the 2016 young bird national winner. The dam of ‘Welltower 1977’ is from a 3rd open mated to a 2nd open SNFC Reims in 2018 the clubs longest race. Brian Kelly of Chirnside won 8th open(well done Brian) and Billy then took the positions from 9th to 15th so he could have broken all his records by winning the 1st x 14 in the open national result, this is no disrespect to Brian Kelly as we as pigeon men enter each race to win it not to be 2nd and Brian will be the same. Billy also timed in young birds to win 18th 19th 36th open with others on the open result but as I said earlier I’m only counting the birds who have won positions in the top 40 not the FULL NATIONAL RESULTS. From the Peterborough race with the SNRPC the convoy of 361 birds were liberated at 8am into a light west wind and Billy gained 1st 2nd 5th 11th 13th 16th 21st 27th 34th 39th & 40th with is winner now named as ‘Welltower Nicola’. Billy visited me today Thursday and I took some photographs of his 1st 2nd & 3rd open plus the wing of the national winner and you will see from the photo that she was carrying a full wing, they were all handling a dream with plenty of body and in excellent condition and to be honest could have gone back again this week. Billy is only waiting on 5 birds from his entry of 44. I'm over the moon for Billy with these 12 National wins as it couldn't happen to a nicer or hard working person. He is one of the nicest men I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit and deserves all the praise he gets as he is ‘One Hell Of A Doo Man’.

PHOTOS

 

Welltower 1977

 

Welltower  1977.JPG

 

 

Welltower 621

 

Welltower 621.JPG

 

 

Welltower Philippa 1st open SNFC yb national

 

Welltower Philippa 1st open SNFC yb national.JPG

 

 

Wing of Welltower Philippa

 

Wing of Welltower Philippa.JPG

 

 

Acknowledgement

 

To all the people who emailed, phoned or texted asking about Kevin, he is very humbled at the thought of so many people enquiring about him. He is now home and taking it easy, his youngest son Matthew has been helping him out in the hut by cleaning the loft. With the season now being over there is no need to let the birds out for a fly and they can carry on with the moult. Kevin has had a few youngsters return this past week, which I like as they have used their brains to get home after being out for a month or so and I found that many of birds like this turn out to be good birds in years to come. Once they go to the nationals as old birds they know how to get home and were their loft is. I told Kevin never to condemn them and give them another chance.

 

Thank You

 

May I thank E E from Castle Gresley HS for sending me the Biggest Pub Joke book; this was very kind of them. Some of these jokes will not however be printed as the ‘ladies’ at the BHW would be blushing once they read them. However it was very nice of you to do this kind gesture.

 

Results

 

Scottish Central Combine, news from Bernie Britton who writes ‘Hi Joe, hope you are all well and Kevin is on the mend. Our combine race flown on the 30th August was won by Gordon Mackenzie with a gay pied hen flown on the darkness system. She is from Bobby Logan of New Cumnock from birds of Bobby’s good friend Ron Hillcoat. 2nd combine is Mark Doran from the Winchburgh club with a blue bar cock a Hermans Custer flown on darkness, his sire is from the late Tam Blair and the dam is from A J Davies from down south. Mark Doran is 3rd with a blue bar hen another Hermans Custer also flown on darkness both sire and dam from the late Tam Blair. Mark would like to thank his mate Johnny Devlin for his help throughout the season. Gordon was 4th combine; with John McNeill won 5th 6th 7th 8th 10th & 19th combine; Pat Rafferty & sons win 11th & 12th combine. May I once again THANK YOU Joe for all your work in keeping fancies throughout the country informed with information and results throughout the year, yours Bernie’.

 

New Lothian RPC

 

From the Huntingdon young bird race flown on Saturday 12th September the 241 birds entered by 26 lofts were liberated with the SNFC entries at 08-00 hours into a west to south west wind. Taking 1st place are the Woodburn partnership of Brown & Black with Freddie Robertson of Danderhall club winning 2nd 3rd 7th 9th 10th 12th 15th & 16th open places; Helen Aitken & sons of the same club are 4th 12th & 18th open with K Dick of Edinburgh Premier club 5th he is followed by A W Robertson of Danderhall club in 6th place. The S & S Tierney partnership from Danderhall club are 8th & 15th with W Kinnear & son of Danderhall are 16th & 20th with J Pryde of Arniston winning 21st place the total pay-out was £979.50p

 

Joe’s Joke

 

‘It’s just too hot to wear clothes today’ said Jack as he stepped out of the shower. ‘Honey, what do you think the neighbours would think if I mowed the lawn like this?’ ‘That I married you for your money’.

 

 

Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or Email to joejmurphy1@gmail.com REMEMBER THE J IN THE MIDDLE or you can also view online editions on: www.elimarpigeons.com www.fancierchat.co.uk www.pigeon-chat.co.uk - www.Pigeonbasics.com - Pigeon Racing the Basics! - thecanadianpigeoninternational.com www.internationalracingpigeon.com or

 

https://sites.google...alracingpigeon/

 

Who wish my weekly contribution portfolio on pigeon topics from Scotland

 

© Compiled by Joe Murphy

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